


Another Night On Mars

by paranormalcy



Category: Watch Dogs (Video Games)
Genre: Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Canon Autistic Character, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 10:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11689416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paranormalcy/pseuds/paranormalcy
Summary: Josh's birthday is coming up and Marcus has the perfect present in mind, he just needs to get some help from Wrench.





	Another Night On Mars

**Author's Note:**

> I was gonna have this up on Josh's actual birthday, the 17th, but I figured that since it's been a while since I last posted fic it wouldn't hurt to put it out early.
> 
> Josh is someone who is very close to my heart - I'm actually autistic too - and it sucks that he isn't getting much recognition in the fandom.

One of the first things Marcus noticed about Josh is how quiet he is, and how he typically prefers to keep to himself. Sitting at his desk for long stretches of time typing in his own little world is very typical for him.

Marcus still isn't sure if interruptions actually irritate Josh - though from the way Josh would roll his shoulders, slouch in his seat, fingers slowly stopping their steady typing, the rhythmic key clacks stuttering to a halt... he's pretty sure it's annoying. Not that Josh would say so - he just likes his routine, likes his rhythm, interruptions fuck it up. It's understandable, really.

Whenever he pauses typing - thinking over his next line of code or even trying to decide what project to tackle for the collective next - the clacking would continue as he lightly drums his fingers against the keys.

Research told Marcus this is typical in autistic individuals, something called 'stimming' - in other terms; fidgeting, it helps them concentrate - and once Marcus knew _that_ he began to notice it a lot more.

The way Josh twists his hoodie sleeves around his hands, quickly mashes the button on a pen when he's making physical notes, sways when he stands, taps his feet as he sits, runs his fingers over the buttons on the video game controller during cutscenes in games he's playing, he even wears a key around his neck that - other than being his perfectly functional front door key - is perfect for stimming by running it back and forth along the chain.

Marcus begins to notice Josh's autistic traits more and more as his research continues, and though he doesn't claim to be an expert, he really begins to understand Josh in a way he's certain most people don't bother to. So when Sitara pulls him to the side and tells him Josh's birthday is coming up he has the perfect idea of what to get him.

He just needs a little help.

~~

Catching Wrench at his garage without Josh is difficult to say the least, Josh likes doing maintenance on his super drone but hates going alone; it's too quiet without the constant Hackerspace noise and he's worried about the idea of a raid, given Wrench's... well, Wrench-ness, it isn't a completely unfounded worry. Wrench acts as an almost bodyguard, if Wrench is at the garage it's a near sure bet that Josh is too.

Which is exactly why Sitara's keeping him distracted updating the DedSec app back at the Hackspace - something about buggy lines of code and the app crashing whenever anyone tried to open it. Truth is Sitara and Marcus had spent an hour going through the code the night before deleting small segments, they pushed the broken code out as an update and it broke the app just enough to have it freeze up on a black screen - it wouldn't take Josh very long to fix it but Sitara has a few ideas for improvements. A new color scheme for starters, maybe a nice green. Or blue. Or-

The shutter door opens onto Wrench's garage, Marcus immediately spots the masked anarchist sitting at his desk a few feet away, his head tilted back in a way that suggests he's sleeping.

He closes the garage door behind him, taking in the sight of Wrench sprawled in the chair, feet on the desk, arms hanging down, double Z's confirming he's fast asleep. Marcus shakes his head, rolling his eyes - of course this asshole can sleep anywhere - he takes a cautious step forward, freezing as a static snore comes from under the mask, Marcus' eyes widen as Wrench shifts, a sleepy sigh slips from his lips, a hand coming up to rest on his stomach. He immediately settles into light snores once more. Marcus relaxes again.

He crosses the garage quietly, not wanting to wake Wrench prematurely, his lips twitch up as he moves to stand behind him, staring down at the double Z's on the mask's display. He brings his phone back up, searching for the sound effects app he'd downloaded that morning - excited to have an opportunity to try it out so soon.

The quick browse through what they had to offer earlier that day had his mind racing, which sound effect should be use? As he catches sight of a certain one he breaks into a grin, stifling a laugh at the imagined outcome. Oh, hell yeah, this one. He turns the volume all the way up and holds the phone out, right next to Wrench's ear, then he hits play.

A horrifically loud xenomorph screech blasts from the phone speaker, Marcus flinches back, watching as Wrench's body jerks violently, a loud string of screamed curses spilling out as he kicks off the table and crashes into Marcus. The both of them topple backwards down the steps and land in a heap, the office chair lands on them with the wheels still spinning in the air.

Marcus groans, certain he now has a whole lot of bruises, he grimaces as Wrench moves on top of him, coming alarmingly close to kneeing him in the groin. Bewildered double @ symbols meet his gaze before switching to angry slashes. "What the fuck, Marcus?! I thought we were friends!"

Marcus lets out a laugh, "you can deal it out to Josh but you can't take it when someone does it back, huh?"

"That's not fair-"

"It absolutely is fair, Josh did _nothing_ to deserve that, man, you just target him because he's autistic," Marcus points out, Wrench's visor changes to underscores - _well at least he feels guilty_ , "yknow how shitty it is to be targeted just coz you're different?"

"Dude, I wear a fucking leather emoji mask," Wrench tries, Marcus shakes his head, "okay, okay - I get it, Josh's brain works differently, we've gotta be nice to him."

"You can play as many pranks on him as you want when they're actually funny," Marcus says, "it's not fair when the pranks are targeting his weaknesses, that's called _bullying_ , Wrench."

Wrench makes a distressed noise, "okay, fine, I'll tell him I'm sorry for the xeno prank."

"Yes you will _and_ you'll help me with a little project," Marcus says with a grin, Wrench gives him a skeptical look - or as skeptical as he can with that mask - "Josh's birthday is coming up."

"What do you have in mind?" Wrench asks with a defeated sigh, question marks appearing on his visor.

Marcus retrieves his phone, quickly changing across to the web browser to bring up his last search. He turns the phone to face Wrench, who sighs again and gives a somber nod, "I can do that."

"Good, now get the fuck off of me, man-"

"I thought we were having a moment."

"You mighta been but I definitely wasn't."

~~

The rush to get Josh's birthday present ready by the 17th of August is more than difficult, especially when Wrench keeps on starting over. Although, starting over is putting it lightly when he'd yell "I can do better than this fucking shitpile" and then smash all the progress he'd made with the sledgehammer before starting from scratch with a brand new 'improved' design.

Sitara gathered everyone in the Hackerspace to celebrate, T-Bone stocked the place with beer, and Horatio picked up a cake. Josh seems nervous, clearly anxious that all the attention is on him. Marcus keeps glancing to the stairs, mentally cursing out Wrench, _where the fuck is he? He better not have started over again._

The moment the door whooshes open Marcus rushes over, making up some excuse about needing to ask Wrench about some new Haum thing that doesn't actually exist. He takes the stairs two at a time, grabbing the anarchist by the arm, "where is it?"

"How did you know I like it rough?" Wrench purrs, handing over a neatly boxed present, tied with green ribbons.

Marcus barely even has time to consider rolling his eyes at Wrench's comment before the surprise hits him, " _you_ wrapped it?"

"There's a lot you don't know about me, Marky Mark," Wrench says with double carets, "just tell Josh to ignore the oil stains on the wrapping paper, it was white and I can only keep stuff clean for so long."

"I've noticed," Marcus mutters, before adding - a little louder - "tell him yourself, this is from both of us, remember?"

"Figured I'd give him the joy of having a Wrench-free birthday," Wrench shrugged, "not exactly been, yknow, _nice_ to him or anything-"

Marcus' hand slides down to Wrench's wrist, "well, you can change that right now."

Wrench hesitates, staring down at the hand around his wrist with wide blinking eyes, then nods slowly, meeting Marcus' gaze, "yeah, you're right - you're always right."

"Hell yes, I am," Marcus nods, tugging Wrench towards the stairs. He lets Wrench's wrist slip from his fingers halfway down, crossing to talk to Josh in private while Wrench helps himself to a beer from the long food packed table.

Josh looks up from nervously tapping his fingers together, eyeing Marcus first, then the gift. "Oh, Marcus, you didn't have to-"

"I wanted to," Marcus says, "I did some research, got some help off Wrench-" Josh's eyes go wide at this- "and I think this could help you get through the party."

Josh worries his lip for a moment then reaches to take the gift, Marcus quietly adds Wrench's apology for the dirty wrapping paper, Josh examines the oil stains then runs his fingers over the ribbon, he hesitates before he pulls, clearly not wanting to disturb the bow. He sighs in defeat and reluctantly tugs, the bow unravelling. He carefully pulls the ribbon away and sets it on his desk, then starts to gently open the paper so he can get to the box beneath. Finally clear, he looks inside the box then pauses, considering.

"It's a fidget cube," Marcus explains quietly, "I read online that they're stim toys, they're supposedly pretty good at helping neurodivergent people focus, relax, yknow, stuff like that."

Josh lifts the device out, setting the empty gift box and the rest of the white paper on his desk beside the ribbon as he examines the cube between his fingers, "Wrench made this - it isn't official - this one is bigger, has more buttons, more- more everything."

Marcus nods in confirmation, Josh quietly rolls his thumb over the metal ball, then moves to  the buttoned side, pressing the ones around the edge before the one in the middle. His lips twitch up so slightly Marcus wonders if he's imagining it, but then he breaks into a grin and looks up at Marcus, meeting his gaze for the briefest moment before looking back at the cube. "Thank you, Marcus."

"And me," Wrench says, sauntering over with three open beers, "don't forget me."

"Thank you, Wrench," Josh says, Wrench offers him one of the beers and Josh hesitates before reaching out and taking it.

"You sure that's not gonna interact with any of your meds?" Marcus checks, claiming other other beer as Wrench shakes it in his direction, some of the beer sloshing out onto the floor.

"I'm sure," Josh says, "I drank stronger stuff at Swelter Skelter but if I start to feel sick I'll stop."

"Okay, I trust ya," Marcus smiles, Josh turns his attention back to the cube only to have it drawn away again by Wrench.

"Hey- uh, Josh?" Wrench toes at the ground with his scuffed up converse, looking the most sheepish Marcus has ever seen him. "I'm sorry about the xenomorph prank."

"Prank's are supposed to be funny," Josh says simply, "I was sleeping - what part of that prank was funny?

Wrench hesitates, watching his foot scuffing at the beer stain, he's clearly trying _very_ hard not to answer that question, "it wasn't, I'm sorry- promise I won't do it again."

Josh looks down at the cube in his fingers then lets out a breath, "okay, I accept your apology, and you better not break your promise." Wrench looks up in surprise, Josh's lips twitch up very briefly, "I'm working on adding turrets to my drone and if you do, I'll fuck your shit up."

Wrench's visor flashes exclamation points, "okay, yeah- fuck- _yeah_ , man- I'll never fuck with you again."

"You can still fuck with me," Josh says, "just... not like that, pranks are supposed to be funny for the prankster and the prankee, try harder."

Wrench nods and Marcus clears his throat, catching Josh's attention, "you two can discuss the arrangements of your semi-truce over a sobering coffee tomorrow, it's your birthday, Josh!" Marcus breaks into a huge grin, "go enjoy yourself, eat cake, get wasted!"

Josh chuckles, moving to walk past them. Marcus reaches out to squeeze his shoulder, "happy birthday, man!"

Wrench moves to lean against Josh's desk, "yeah- happy birthday, Joshy."

He glances back at them, smile faltering slightly before it breaks out into a huge grin, his thumb absentmindedly running across the trackball already, "thanks, guys." They watch as he crosses to Sitara, who greets him with a bright smile and a side hug.

"Hey!" Wrench calls over, watching as Sitara's shoulders tense, "bring us some cake!"

Sitara's hand leaves Josh's shoulder for a moment to flip the two of them off, she takes the plate of cake Horatio hands over and immediately hands it off to Josh.

"I think we did good," Marcus says, moving to lean on the desk beside Wrench.

"Yeah?" Wrench glances at him, lifting up the lower half of his mask so he can drink his beer, the pause stretches on as he downs almost a third of the bottle's contents before replacing his mask. "Wanna blow the roof off this fuckin' party?"

"Thought you'd never ask."


End file.
